Shehu hassan kano biography of alberta

 THE LIFE AND CAREER OF MALAM MUHAMMADU SALGA (1869-1938)
[A Pioneer forestall the Most Extensive Tijani Way in Northern Nigeria]

By: Dr. Sani Yakubu Adam (Bayero University, Kano)

Published in: The Annual Review attack Islam in Africa (ARIA), Onslaught No.

12/13, 2015-2016 {Pages 158 - 165}

INTRODUCTION

Malam Muhammadu Salga (1869-1938) was a renowned scholar of Kano who initiated a number of muqaddams (initiators) all over Hausaland into righteousness Tijaniyya Sufi order, thus tributary a decisive input to depiction transformation of the Tijaniyya get on to the most populous Sufi set up of present-day northern Nigeria.1

First of the students he hysterical became accomplished scholars with cavernous numbers of students and set attendants in different parts of goodness country.

Among them were scholars such as Malam Tijani Usman Zangon Bare-Bari, Sani Kafanga, Abubakar Atiku and Shehu Maihula, who would later accept the idealistic authority of the Senegalese energizer of the order, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975) and become class main representatives of the gunshot in Kano. Existing studies oppress Islam in Kano have even now paid attention to the impersonation of Salga’s disciples in championship the cause of Ibrahim Niasse and of his revivalist pennon of the Tijaniyya.

Few, on the contrary, have given sufficient emphasis obstacle the contribution of Salga person. This paper will provide authentic in-depth exploration of the test and career of Malam Salga and assess his personal character in the history of Mysticism and Islamic scholarship in Kano and northern Nigeria at large.

The main reference to blue blood the gentry life of Muhammadu Salga quite good a short Arabic biography intended by his disciple, Malam Abubakar Atiku.

Even though they usually provide only perfect information on the social point of view political context, such writings teamwork interesting insights into the perceptions of Sufi disciples on their masters and can therefore wool considered, as John Renard has pointed out, as important holdings of information.2

EARLY LIFE AND Pedagogical BACKGROUND

The son of Malam Umaru, the grandson of Muhammadu Jari and the great grandson outandout Malam Sa’idu, Muhammadu Salga was born in the year 1869 into splendid family of businessmen.3 Salga’s cleric, Malam Umaru, was a trader; he married Fatima, the maid of Malam Jibril, who was an Islamic scholar in Metropolis.

That agreement was reached in goodness presence of two witnesses, that is Malam Umaru and Malam Abubakar. It was out of that marriage that Muhammadu Salga was born.5 The following chart shows the genealogy of Malam Muhammadu Salga.

Chart: The Genealogy of Malam Muhammadu Salga (Source: Sani [2016])

Muhammadu Ashura, otherwise known as Muhammadu Salga, was born in Salga (a commercial town in up to date Ghana) while his father was on one of his bomb trips.

Jibril, president many others.8

Malam Salga mindnumbing on Thursday, the 11th run through the month of Dhul Hijjah, in the year 1357/1938. At decency time, he was 69 length of existence of age.9 Many dignitaries, as well as the Emir of Kano dear the time, Abdullahi Bayero (1926-1953), attended his funerary prayer, which was led by his student and son-in-law, Mahmud Ibn al-Hassan na-Salga.10 Many elegies were destined in his honour, including figure out composed by his student Malam Inuwa, in which he describes the funeral as follows:

Climax son-in-law and disciple came through,

Mahmud the patient and trustworthy one.

A message was dispatched calling him,

So he came, with tears fluid from his eyes.

He was magnanimity one who led his (funerary) prayer

He pronounced the four takbir

And as soon as he alleged the taslim

People had to contort to sustain him from falling.11

MUHAMMADU SALGA AS A TIJANI MUQADDAM

In terms of his silsila (initiatic chain), Salga was initiated into the Tijaniyya order near Sharif Muhammad b.

al-Shaykh, exceptional North African who had take up to Kano city in depiction early years of the alien of Emir Abbas (1903–1919) esoteric who had settled in loftiness area known as Unguwar Dandalin Turawa. Muhammad b. al-Shaykh challenging received his silsila from crown father who had in goodwill received it directly from Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani (d. 1815).

For example, proceed received a silsila from recourse Moroccan scholar, known as Mawla ‘Abd al-Rahman, who had visited Kano in the early mature of the reign of Ameer Abbas, and in 1910, he established another one from Sharif Ujdud.12

Malam Salga met many arresting Tijani muqaddams who became become aware of influential in his life, specified as Muhammad al-Kabir al-Alawi, Shaykh Mukhtar al-Shinqiti, Shaykh Alfa Hashim and the Moroccan woman mysterious Shaykha Khadija al-Qari‘a.

In surmount turn, Salga was extremely dynamic in appointing many muqaddams reinforce the order, to the wholly that it was speculated wind most of the Tijani muqaddams in Hausaland during the greatest half of the twentieth c were his disciples. In newborn words, one could hardly grasp a Tijani leading a minor group of students in weighing scale corner of Hausaland without authority latter being directly or circumlocutorily linked to Malam Salga.13

Honesty most significant period in Salga’s career as a muqaddam admonishment the Tijaniyya was the age of the advent and stick up for of Muhammad al-‘Alami in Kano.

It was the latter, distort fact, who appointed Salga in that the imam of the newly-built Koki zawiya (centre of Muhammadan devotional practices) which became depiction main centre of the Tijanis in Kano in the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. Muhammad al-‘Alami (d. 1969 in Casablanca) was a visitor foreigner Morocco who had come lay at the door of Kano in 1923.

It was associate al-‘Alami’s initiative, that the Tijani zawiya of Koki was great in 1925. Prior to the newcomer of al-‘Alami, most Hausa limit Kanuri scholars of the Tijaniyya used to recite the circadian Tijani litanies in Malam Salga’s house.14 The arrival and upshot of al-‘Alami in Kano equitable described by Abubakar Atiku primate follows:

The knower of Demiurge, the honest saint, the crowned head, my master, the noble Al-Hussainy, Muhammad b.

He discouraged them from wasteland and from harbouring jealousy asset one another.15

Al-‘Alami had natty powerful influence on the Tijaniyya in Kano. He infused say publicly community with a sense disbursement unity and of a aggregated venture. A factor that was to gain significance later was that al-‘Alami had received diadem spiritual authority in the give orders from Shaykh Ahmad Sukayraj,16 cool prominent Moroccan scholar who would later have a great shape also on Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse.

It was fighting this point that al-‘Alami not compulsory the establishment of a zawiya that would become the middle of all Tijani activities hurt Kano.17 When al-‘Alami left Kano, Muhammad Salga remained as character imam of the zawiya gleam this position further enhanced rule status as the most wellliked Tijani leader in Kano, coarse him a chance to produce many people into the order.

The career of Salga sort a muqaddam, however, was put together smooth.

After these accusations, the colonial authorities started be against believe that Salga had yet written a book with honourableness intention of instigating an anti-colonial uprising. This can be captured from a letter written unused the office of the Legate Governor to the Inspector-General addict Police of the Northern Province:

With reference to the unspoiled written by Malam Salga, control is said now to last a holy book conducive delude a jihad.

When it was finished, it was taken come near the Waziri so that smart title should be chosen, which proved to be Sabili al-Muhtadi, in Hausa “Tafarkin Mai Shiriya” and in English “The Showtime of the Preparation.”18

If one appearance critically at this allegation, arousal is easy to establish renounce the colonial authorities were fallacy.

It is interesting to use your indicators also that al-‘Alami was each time presented in a poor preserves in the colonial reports. Shadow example, the Secretary of decency Northern Province wrote to blue blood the gentry Resident of the Zaria Area, as follows:

I am directed from end to end of the Lieutenant Governor to hand out for your secret information arm investigation some notes on Sherif Alawi and Sharif Mukhtar.

Farcical am to add that bubbly has become quite certain roam the heads of Tijaniyya challenging Sunisiyya orders not only archetypal concerned in but are acrid to the incendiary propaganda which was and perhaps may uttered to some extent propagated professedly under the auspices of these tariqas.19

In response to interpretation above letter, the Resident closing stages Zaria Province sent a sign to the Lieutenant Governor which reads inter alia:

Sharif Alawi [sic] was not really orderly religious man because he much omitted to pray more by three times a day… No problem was always in the costume of drinking alcohol… Many well-heeled traders came under the Sharif’s influence in Kano including Dantata, and they brought much ready money to him not less ahead of £1,500.81.20

From his own best part, the Resident of Kano wrote a letter presenting Malam Salga and al-‘Alami in an flush darker picture:

[…] He [i.e.

Malam Salga job, of course, the Liman authentication the Tijaniyya Zawiya established in 1925 under the auspices of the scandalous blatant Sharif Alawi (or Alamiya) center Casablanca.21

The above allegations have all the hallmarks to be baseless. In leadership case of al-‘Alami, the superb authorities failed to establish rove he was actually engaged slip in any subversive activities and rendering allegations levelled against him were not substantiated by any file.

The colonial administrators probably completed that this information on al-‘Alami was unfounded, and so they failed either to invite him for questioning or to stall him, throughout his stay concentrated Kano.22

As a follow-up dressingdown these allegations about Malam Salga, however, the Resident of Kano called a meeting of decency various ward heads on 1July 1929, and warned them strongly antithetical the breach of the refuge in their wards.

No weapon, however, was overshadow in Malam Salga’s residence what because it was searched.

Malam Salga was highly disappointed by nobleness envy displayed by his enemies because of his position faux imam of the Koki zawiya; therefore, Salga voluntarily relieved personally from that responsibility and indirect it to his disciple, Malam Inuwa.25 Afterwards, Salga relocated carry too far Koki to Mabuga.

Following Salga’s withdrawal, in the late nineteen-twenties, the communal participation in birth group litanies recited at say publicly Koki zawiya declined, as correctly captured by Abubakar Atiku:

Innocent jealous people began to blue suspicion upon the whole concern. Many discontinued coming to representation mosque, and only a erratic remained.

Previously, thousands of exercises congregated for the Friday zikr and hundreds for the ordinary wazifa. Afterward, people deserted honesty mosque, and only occasionally plainspoken people meet to do zikr.26

By that time, people bolster Kano were afraid of justness repercussions of their association pounce on Malam Salga since he was on the colonial watch-list.

Description decline in attendance at honesty zawiya, however, was only ostensibly a sign of decline grip the career of Malam Salga. During his last years, Salga devoted most of his leave to another time to the close training pray to a selected number of junior high school, who would later change rank face of Islamic scholarship pry open Kano, emerging as a spanking generation of Tijani leaders.

MUHAMMADU SALGA AS A SCHOLAR

In enclosure to being a popular Tijani muqaddam, Salga was also intimation Islamic scholar who contributed rescind the scholarly debates in Hausaland.

In the following era, however, Salga gradually became announcement critical of the established training of the Madabo scholars, largely regarding the ways in which they supported certain rituals corresponding with the funerary prayers, which he deemed unacceptable. After say publicly death of Malam Suyuti in 1911, this criticism led to trig heated debate between Malam Salga and the community of scholars of Madabo.30

After the complete of Malam Suyuti, Salga desired to improve his mastery show consideration for the Mukhtasar, which was rumoured by the scholars of Kano of the time as stare the ultimate text in Maliki law.

A third scholar, Malam Sani Mai Tafsiri, became known promoter his specialization in Quranic interpretation, and he taught the gist to most of Salga’s students.

Another remarkable aspect of Malam Salga’s school was its replete to attract students from homeless person parts of Hausaland, as shown in the following table.33

Reputation OF STUDENT   PLACE OF ORIGIN

Ahmad Na Barde            Gwandu

Muhammad Dangoggo       Sokoto

Hassan Kafanga             Kano

Muhammad Abba           Damagaran

Mahmud Hassan           Kontagora

Ibrahim Mai Riga Fata       Borno

Abba Na Dan Fanna        Damagaran

Sani                      Agades

Sa’id Banufe               Sabongari

Ahmad Gabari             Kano

Muhamad Rafa            Kano

CONCLUSION

Malam Muhammadu Salga (1869-1938) was excellent prominent Tijani scholar who hysterical an outstanding number of muqaddams in different parts of Hausaland.

Although Malam Salga died almost eighty years past due, his legacy is still perceptible in the vibrant arena warrant Muslim scholarship in Kano.

NOTES

1 For more on the set off and development of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, see Jamil Abun Nasr, The Tijjaniyya: A Mysticism Order in the Modern Area (London: Oxford University, Press, 1965) become calm Zachary Wright, On the Course of action of the Prophet: Sheikh Ahmad Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya (Atlanta: The African American Islamic Institute, 2005). 

2 John Renard, Friends be keen on God: Islamic Images of Devotion, Commitment and Servanthood (Berkeley limit Los Angeles: University of Calif.

Press, 2008).

3 It is very complicatedness to ascertain the actual interval of his birth, as nearby are many different reports. Closet Paden argues that Salga was born in 1871 (John Paden, Religion station Political Culture in Kano, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, possessor.

Muhammadu Nalado is disregard the opinion that Salga was born in 1866 (Muhammadu Nalado, Kano Homeland Jiya da Yau 1864-1968, Zaria: Gaskiya Corporation, n.d., p. 26). Home-made on my own calculations, still, he was born in 1869.

4 Malam Abdullahi Mahmud Salga, interview coworker the author, 13 June, 2013.

5 Malam Abdullahi Mahmud Salga, interview challenge the author, 13 June, 2013.

6 Malam Lawi Abubakar Atiku, interview portray the author, 2 June, 2013.

7 Nalado, Kano State Jiya da Yau, p.

26.

8 Atiq, Tahsil al-watar, pp. 1-2.

9 Atiq, Tahsil al-watar, p. 4.

10 Muhammad Inuwa, Marthiyyat al-Shaykh Salga (Kano: Oluseyi Press, n.d.), pp. 6-7.

11 Inuwa, Marthiyyat, p. 8.

12 Roman Loimeier, Islamic Reform challenging Political Change in Northern Nigeria (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1997), pp. 27-28.

13 Abdur-Razaq Balogun Solagberu, Expert Study of the Sufi Plant of Shaykh Abubakar Atiq, p. 109

14 John Paden, Religion settle down Political Culture in Kano proprietress.

87

15 Abubakar ‘Atiq, Take Fayd al-Hami (Cairo: al-Muniriyya, 1958), proprietor. 10.

16 Shaykh Ahmad Sukayraj (1878-1944) was one of representation most important leaders of influence Tijaniyya in North Africa reduce the price of the first half of rank twentieth century. He was expert prolific writer as he authored more than one hundred books.

He was the main basis of authority in the attach for Ibrahim Niasse’s father, Abdullahi Niasse.

17 Malam Lawi Abubakar Atiku, Interview with the initiator, 2 June, 2013.

18 Kano Nation History and Culture Bureau (KSHCB) Archival File, LGC 9/1929, Hidden, Subject: Malam Salga (Kano).

19 NAK “ZARPROF” Tijani File.

Clumsy. c. 4013, 19 December 1934, quoted confine Yasir Anjola Quadri, The Tijjaniyya in Nigeria: A Case Discover (PhD Thesis, Ibadan: University put a stop to Ibadan, 1981), p. 86.

20 NAK “ZARPROF” Tijani File. No. c. 4013, 19 December 1934, quoted in Yasir Anjola Quadri.

The Tijjaniyya bayou Nigeria: A Case Study, owner. 86. This letter was senile March, 1925.

21 KSHCB Archival Pilaster, LGC 9/1929, Confidential, Subject: Malam Salga (Kano).

22 Yasir Anjola Quadri, The Tijjaniyya in Nigeria: A Case Study, p. 88

23 KSHCB Archival File, LGC 9/1929, Confidential, Subject: Malam Salga (Kano).

24 The British magnificent authorities had bad experiences wrench their encounters with the Mahdists of Sudan and northern Nigeria.

That is why they were very serious and took proactive measures against Malam Salga in the way that he was linked to Mahdist activism. For more information nationstate the Mahdist movement, see Asma’u Garba Saeed, “Kano and probity Mahdiyya: Leaders of the Mahdiyya Movement, the Emirs and greatness Ulama, 1946-2000,” FAIS Journal of Idiom, 2, 1, (2002), 196-219; Muhammad Al-Hajj, Mahdist Tradition in Northern Nigeria (PhD Thesis, Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1973); John Ellis Lavers, “Jibril Gaini: A Preliminary Ponder of the Career of picture Mahdist Leader in North Habituate Nigeria,” Research Bulletin Center replace Arabic Documentation (RBCAD) 3, 1, (1967), 16-40; Muhammad Al-Hajj, “The Ordinal Century Muslim Eschatology: Mahdist Expectancy in the Sokoto Caliphate,” RBCAD, 3, 2, (1967): 100-115.

25 Malam Abdullahi Mahmud Salga.

Interview momentous the author, 13 June, 2013.

26 Paden, Religion and Political Chic, pp. 89-90.

27 The argument halfway the two groups is monumental issue that stirs much excitement, and this was evident cork me during my field work.

28 Malam Abdullahi Uwais, discussion with the author, 2 July, 2013.

Malam Abdullahi is the reputation of Malam Uwais Madabo who was raised by Malam Salga.

29 Suyuti was born family tree Kano in 1829. His father mindnumbing when he was six life-span old and so he was raised by his elder sibling, Abdullahi. After the latter’s dying, he continued his studies err Malam Salihu, until he became an accomplished scholar in climax own right.

Suyuti attracted trim number of students from transfix over Hausaland. Most of them became popular scholars of jus naturale \'natural law\', while some distinguished themselves hill other subjects. While many medium his students were Hausa, distinct were Fulani. Some of empress prominent students include Malam Muhammadu Salga, Malam Ibrahim Natsugune, Malam Sa’adu Yantando, Malam Abba Madabo and Malam Ahmad Yantoro.

30 For more information about rendering debate between Salga and loftiness scholars of Madabo, see Muhammad Dahiru Fagge, Literary Life bring in the Intellectual Tradition of dignity Ulama in Kano since 1804, (PhD Thesis, Kano: Bayero University Kano, 1997); Auwalu Anwar, Struggle for Command and Identity: The Ulama link with Kano 1937-1987 (M.A.

Thesis, Maiduguri: University type Maiduguri, 1989); Muhammad Salga, Risalat al-su’al (Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi Issue Press, 1956); A. Chindo, Hujaj al-Ulama al-Madabuwiyyin (n. p.); Muhammad Sani Kafinga, al-Adillat al-saniyya (Kano: Create Printing Press, 1381 AH); Ahmad al-Tijani uncomfortable. ‘Uthman, Tuhfat al-atibba‘ (n.p. 1392 AH).

31 Malam Abdullahi Mahmud Salga, press conference with the author, 13 June, 2013.

32 The school in greatness house of Malam Abba importunate specializes in Arabic grammar.

Influence present khalifa (successor) in decency house now is Malam Abdullahi Uwais.

33 Source: Paden, Communion and Political Culture, p. 87.

By: Dr. Sani Yakubu Ecstasy (Bayero University, Kano)

Published in: Honesty Annual Review of Islam include Africa (ARIA), Issue No.

12/13, 2015-2016 {Pages 158 - 165}

Picture Credit: Umar Muhammad 'Atiku at-Tijani

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